STP really snuck up on me this year. I suppose that has to do with the little riding I feel like I did this year, the craptacular weather, and the whole having a family and such. While standing in the start line at 6:00 AM on Saturday it was hard to imagine that it was here already and I was minutes away from beginning. I mean, this is the event that I do, I’m not some 5 time Iron Man like some (cough, cough, Jeremy) but this is what I look forward to, what I train for. Some things that could have gone better and some things that helped me get through after the jump.

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I’m working up some words to describe my two days of riding, flossing and flying.

In the meantime here are some links to pictures from STP by Marathon Foto. Click on the “buy” button next to the photo and then the pic itself to see a larger view.

Jeremy’s pics

Sean’s pics

David’s pics

Besides our pictures on Flickr here’s some more:

Cascade Bike Club’s

Photos from Gerry on Flickr

The plan was to eat breakfast at 5:15 or so but apparently that wasn’t everyone else’s plan. At about 4:00 AM the gym started waking up. It began like every other large-group wake-up: A couple people begin to get up and are really quiet, but as more people get up the acceptable volume level rises as there is more and more noise and people up and about. I checked my phone at 4:18 and Gerry was already awake giving me an update on how the morning had progressed.

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The plan was to wake up at 3:30 but I woke up to my internal alarm clock at 3:45. Jody was making pancakes and eggs downstairs when I got up and after getting ready a bit I went downstairs to eat. Gerry was making lattes for everyone but no one else was eating so I at two pancakes (carbs) and some eggs and grabbed some espresso and headed upstairs to get into my cycling gear. I was all ready so I brought everything downstairs where I found Gerry and Valerie eating and I got my first water bottles of the day ready (one water, one Gatorade). We finally got all ready (the plan was to leave at 4:30 but Valerie’s ride didn’t get there until about 5:00, she was riding with Sarah and Sarah’s dad, Bill who was doing the STP: Seattle to Puyallup because he hadn’t trained) and headed up to Seattle to see what we would see.

We passed a few cyclists on their way too, we could tell because they were wearing their jerseys, and oh yeah, the bikes on/in their cars.

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When I woke up it seemed like every other day, there were chores to do and kids to take care of. I told Rose I would help get the house in order before I left and with Oskar having spent the night at my mom’s house I could do all those things and pack since that was important too. I spent the morning picking up and cleaning up the house and helping with Milo. We were supposed to be over at the Gilbert’s house for dinner at 6:00 but I didn’t get to packing until sometime in the afternoon when Milo took his long nap. It felt kind of last minute but I found out later that Gerry hadn’t even packed at all when I finally got over there around 7:00.

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So here it is the second day after finishing the Seattle to Portland 2007 ride and I feel great! However, before I talk about the ride it’s important to go back to the beginning, as Inigo said, and show how it was and is that I got to this point at all.

STP is something that I’ve thought I could do at some point in the future for a few years now. Why that is I don’t exactly know. I hadn’t become a cyclist until this year but growing up I always had a bike and I’ve always loved riding so I guess it didn’t seem too far out of the ordinary to take the next step and get serious about it. However, that meant that I would have to get a bike and begin training since the last bike I owned I left in Portland when I was moving around while in college at PSU and it was a mountain bike. I needed a road bike.

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